Pretty interesting find. (Not completely sure if this is the right community for this- let me know if you know where else it would be a good fit!)
the article doesn’t mention how corrosion is prevented, since iron loves to rust, also doesn’t link to a paper which could contain that information
The coating being orange indicates it is reacting with oxygen, aka rusting.
They aren’t shiny silver plated teeth.
Had to look this up yesterday as I had thought the same. In rodents anyway, the orange color is from amino acids, not the iron in their teeth.
there’s some snail that has an iron sulfide shell
Evolution really fucked up when it came to our teeth, huh?
They aren’t the only ones. Beavers do too! So does the Giant Pacific chiton (world’s largest chiton, a type of mollusk).
Pretty useful for animals that have to scrape food off rocks or continually gnaw through something.
I guess Komodo dragons need those teeth to last, whereas sharks are just like “I got a million of these things.”
I didn’t know that either about beavers. Or chitons. But I already knew about mollusks doing crazy things with iron, like that armor plated snail.
I’m surprised Komodo dragons need their teeth to last, reptiles afaik replace their teeth indefinitely
I just looked it up and apparently the iron is just to enhance the cutting surface. They do have teeth that replaced themselves indefinitely as well.
With beavers, the enamel is iron enhanced so it’s stronger than the dentine behind. They wear unevenly, the back wearing down more easily than the front, which keeps the teeth sharp. They’re incisors continue to grow indefinitely, but they don’t get replacements if they lose one.
Beavers keep growing their yeeth indefinitely too due to being rodents, but the iron buildup probably helps the teeth wear a bit slower.
The iron content in beaver teeth is concentrated at the front surface so that they are self-sharpening as they wear down.
That’s metal
